Headline: Setback for India’s Security Council push

Photo: The UN Security Council in session . . . India’s bid for a permanent seat off current agenda

New York: India’s push to achieve urgent reforms of the UN Security Council this year and secure a permanent seat has suffered a setback when the General Assembly decided to roll over discussions on reforming the world body’s top organ to its next session.

India along with the G4 nations said it is “unfortunate” that momentum could not build up over the issue in the current session.

Brazil’s envoy to the UN, Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, speaking on behalf of the G4 group of Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan, lamented that the UN had not been able to push forward and achieve success in implementing the long-pending reform of the 15-nation Council.

“There was huge expectation that the time had arrived for us to move into concrete negotiations, It is unfortunate that the 70th anniversary of the UN was not able to build up momentum with a view to reaching an agreement on this important item,” Patriota said in the General Assembly here.

India has been pushing for completing reforms of the UN Security Council in the 70th session of the General Assembly, which will end in September this year.

Taking consensus action yesterday, the General Assembly adopted an oral decision paving the way for Member States to continue discussions on reforming the Security Council during its 71st session, which will commence in September.

In giving effect to that “technical rollover”, the Assembly reaffirmed its central role on the issue of Security Council reform, known formally as “the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Security Council”.

Speaking for the G4, the Brazilian envoy described Security Council reform as one of the most pressing issues still pending on the General Assembly’s agenda.

It was crucial that Member States engage in real, text-based negotiations if the process was to have any meaning, he said.

While the elements of convergence on two of the five key issues pertaining to the reform process could be considered useful to the extent that they identified some already-known trends on the positions and proposals of Member States, other important patterns on the remaining three clusters were regrettably not reflected as leading towards convergence.

He added that it was obvious that a growing majority of Member States supported the Council’s expansion in both membership categories, but that had not been registered in writing.

Member States had also argued that the under- representation of developing countries should be addressed, yet that suggestion had also not been captured.

“The longer we postpone a decision on the reform of the Security Council, the greater discredit brought upon the United Nations in its core function of promoting peace and security,” he said adding that “we can no longer go around in circles on Security Council reform”.